The majority of people who are sharing their views online do so without the intent of purposely hurting anyone even though some people will inevitably become offended by whatever was said. And that is their issue to deal with.

However, some people go online to piss others off intentionally. And they feel they can get away with that kind of bullying because they are hidden behind a screen without being seen at all. And they get old very fast and the best thing to do is to ignore these fools that create trouble online since they have nothing better to do.

These trouble makers are referred to as internet trolls or keyboard warriors and plenty of people don’t really understand the difference between the two groups of silly folks who think they are being big and bad but they aren’t.

Keyboard Warrior

What is a keyboard warrior? It is someone who goes online to infuriate others by sharing their strong opinions not caring who gets upset. In fact, they are quite aggressive and nasty and have no problem with causing commotion online because they are hidden.

A keyboard warrior doesn’t necessarily intend to upset anyone but they do by sharing their strong opinions in an aggressive way and don’t care who gets upset. They know they will rock the boat anyway because of the fact that they are sharing a very unpopular opinion and do it in a mean way. They want to be heard but don’t want to be seen either.

For instance, you will see many keyboard warriors getting into hot water when they share unpopular opinions in political posts. They are not intending to ‘hurt’ anyone by sharing their opinion but they end up doing so because of how insensitive and unpopular it is, and they are not apologetic at all.

Internet Troll

An internet troll, on the other hand, creates trouble online and has no problem with it considering that he or she is hidden behind a screen. However, an internet troll only causes commotion online just to stir the pot.

Unlike a keyboard warrior, an internet troll causes problems online just to get a reaction. Keyboard warriors are not looking for reactions or attention. They just want to be heard and make that happen in a nasty way. Internet trolls, however, do want to hurt other people’s feelings and want to make sure that they were successful in hurting someone’s feelings.

The best way to handle internet trolls is either to ignore them or to call them out. For instance, I had responded to a post on a Facebook page that was about obesity and I had shared how The Heart Attack Grill will allow you to eat there free if you weigh more than 350 lbs.

So some silly troll thought she was being funny by basically body shaming me (hilarious since I am so close to my goal and my public pictures on Facebook don’t show much of me other than my face which is much thinner than it used to be). I decided to check her profile and she appeared to be almost as large as I was before I had started my weight loss journey. What did I do? I called her out on her bullshit and that was the end of it.

Keyboard warriors and internet trolls are annoying, but they are not the same thing even though they both feel they can express whatever they want while hiding behind a screen.